WHERE WE'VE BEEN

In the summer of 2015, Sara Holdren and Rachel Carpman served as Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director of the Yale Summer Cabaret's Rough Magic Season, in which Josephine Stewart was a company member. The Yale Summer Cabaret is a more than forty-year-old non-profit theater, run by students of the Yale School of Drama during the summer months in New Haven, Connecticut. The seeds of Tiltyard were planted with Rough Magic, which was conceived as a cross-disciplinary, collaborative endeavor — a company of artists and a community of friends committed to reinvigorating classic texts and creating a space for never-before-seen, ensemble-driven work. This mission lives on with Tiltyard, which is the next phase of an ever-evolving dream.

"I have dreamed about forming a theater company for more than a decade. I used to call the company in my imagination The Barn. That’s what it was to me: a big, beautiful, communal space where people could gather, imagine, experiment, work, play, eat, dance, watch, and experience something together. Tiltyard is that dream taking shape in the here and now." —Sara Holdren, Artistic Director

Members of the Rough Magic acting company rehearse MIDSUMMER (photo by Andrea Berman).

The Rough Magic sign hangs outside the Yale Summer Cabaret in 2015.

The Rough Magic Company was the basis and inspiration for Tiltyard, and we are forever grateful to its original members for their collaboration and fellowship.

Members of the Rough Magic acting company rehearse ORLANDO (photo by Andrea Berman)

Niall Powderly and Melanie Field in the premiere of MIDSUMMER at the Yale Summer Cabaret, 2015 (photo by Andrea Berman)